Garnet Mimms - Looking For You: The Complete United Artists & Veep Singles (2015)

Philadelphia-born Garnet Mimms is a favourite artist for nearly all 60s soul fans. His work with his mentor Jerry Ragovoy is considered to be the high water mark of East Coast soul music of the 60s, unsurpassed in terms of vocal quality and sublime arrangements. Garnet enjoyed only a sprinkling of hits, but his recordings were covered by Van Morrison, Dusty Springfield, Elvis Costello and the Yardbirds an indication of the respect and admiration in which they are held by his fellow musicians. Looking For You is the first CD anthology of Garnet's work to present all 14 of his singles for the US arm of United Artists and its subsidiary label, Veep. (Kent would have liked to include his UK-only singles, too, but there simply wasn't room.) As with Kent's recent overview of Jimmy Holiday s Minit recordings, the quality of the music is matched by an extensively annotated and illustrated booklet containing many rare and previously unpublished photographs and label shots of every featured recording. Although made half a century ago, the tracks sound as fresh and vibrant as the day they were taped. Soul fans the world over and particularly in the UK, where Garnet toured a remarkable 11 times will welcome this CD enthusiastically.